Viewpoints

U.S. Housing Starts and Building Permits Recoverby Tom Moeller December 18, 2018

Total housing starts rose 3.2% (-3.6% y/y) during November to
1.256 million (AR) from 1.217 million in October, revised from 1.228 million.
The level exceeded expectations for 1.230 million starts in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

A 22.4% rise (21.7% y/y) in starts of multi-family units to
432,000 accounted for last month's gain in the total. It followed a 1.4%
decline. Starts of single-family units fell 4.6% (-13.1% y/y) to 824,000, down
for the third straight month.

Last month's increase in total starts reflected a roughly
one-third improvement, both m/m and y/y, in the Northeast to 124,000 units from
90,000. Starts in the South rose 15.1% (1.3% y/y) to 687,000, an 11-year high.
Countering these increases was a 19.2% decline (-12.4% y/y) in the Midwest to
156,000, which more-than-reversed the rise during October. Housing starts in the
West fell 14.2% (-18.4% y/y) to 289,000, the lowest level since July.